ABUSE

Paedophile Catholic
brother underwent psycho-sexual therapy (Brisbane Times) July 8 - A paedophile Catholic brother who preyed on three children in
Melbourne before returning to America was ordered by his Marianist religious
order to undergo psycho-sexual therapy 26 years before being charged by
Victoria Police.

ANGLICAN
CHURCH

CATHOLIC
CHURCH

Where are the Pope's
Australian bishops? (Brisbane
Times) July 10 – (Opinion: Frank O'Shea) A report in Fairfax newspapers last week
described an alliance between business organisations, energy suppliers and
climate activists to persuade the federal government to increase its commitment
to reducing greenhouse emissions.

Pope Francis to meet 'Mr
Nobody' (The Age, Melbourne) July 7 - Guayaquil, Ecuador: The Reverend Francisco Cortes walks slowly with a
cane with a built-in flashlight and admits to a lifelong weakness for cigars.

Pope Francis dedicates
mass to women as thousands make Paraguay pilgrimage (The Guardian, Australia) July 12 - Pope Francis received a very Argentinian welcome on Saturday at
Paraguay’s most important pilgrimage site, with thousands of his countrymen
joining hundreds of thousands of Paraguayan faithful for a mass that served as
a makeshift homecoming for the Argentinian pope.

Saudi TV show 'Selfie'
becomes a hit by mocking IS (The
West Australian) July 10 - A new TV satire program has become a hit in the Arab world by mocking
some of the region's most serious issues, from the intractable Sunni-Shiite
divide and religious extremism to the brutality of militants like the Islamic
State group.

27 dead in Bangladesh charity
handout stampede: police (The
West Australian) July 11 - Dhaka (AFP) - A stampede during a Ramadan charity handout killed at
least 27 people in Bangladesh on Friday as hundreds of desperately poor people
tried to get their hands on free clothing, police said.

Religious
Violence

Islamic State
propaganda: what the West doesn't understand(Sydney Morning Herald) July 7 - Beirut: Behind the ultra-violent execution videos that have become the
Islamic State's disturbing trademark is a carefully calibrated set of messages
aimed not at terrorising but at recruiting people to "an alternative way
of living".

China says repatriated
Uighurs 'were on way to jihad' (The
West Australian) July 12 - Beijin(AFP) - China's security ministry said Saturday that 109
Uighurs repatriated by Thailand had been on their way to Turkey, Syria or Iraq
"to join jihad", state media reported.

Liberal Sinodinos open
to gay marriage law (The West
Australian) July 8 - Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos says he's prepared to back same-sex
marriage if religious institutions are exempted and other concerns can be met.

RELIGION
& SOCIETY

Church could opt out of
marriage (The Australian) July 7 - The NSW Presbyterian Church has flagged withdrawing from the Marriage
Act if parliament legalises same-sex marriage.

Hare Krishna building
sells for record price (Brisbane
Times) July 7 - The home of Melbourne's Hare Krishnas and their popular Crossways and
Gopal vegetarian restaurants - a skinny, eight-level building on Swanston
Street - has set a new city land price record, selling to a Chinese investor
for $81,500 a square metre.

Atheists can be every
bit as moral as believers (Brisbane
Times) July 11 – (Opinion: Barney Zwartz) On the recent Monday –as the ABC's Q&A pulled the scab off its
self-inflicted wound in giving a platform to former jihadist and present
misogynist Zaky Mallah – public atheist Lawrence Krauss could not resist sliding
the stiletto into religion.